Bonn housing market Affordable housing remains a problem

BONN · Around 4000 visitors flocked to the Bonn Property Fair at the Telekom Dome at the weekend.

A man from Troisdorf was the first visitor to the 7th Bonn Property Fair. The fair, which the General Anzeiger had organised, only opened its doors to the Telekom Dome at 11am but the Troisdorfer was already standing in front of the hall at 6am on Saturday. The man gave sound reasons for the early start. He wanted to be the first at the stand of project developer Bonava. The company was one of a total of 30 exhibitors and what particularly interested him was that Bonava had linked the kickoff of the marketing of 15 apartments in the final new build phase of the “Stadttorgärten” project in Beuel to the 7th Bonn Property Fair, said Bastian Seelbach, who is responsible for the construction project.

The visitor was interested in a 50 square metre, two room apartment worth around Euro 250,000 in the final new build phase. This time, he did not want to leave anything to chance after having been interested in an apartment in the previous construction phase. “At that time, I answered the offer I received by email within a minute. But the apartment was no longer available.”

As a tour of the fair on Saturday showed, such experiences are not one-offs. Finding affordable properties remains a big problem. In addition, there were again many property owners among the 4000 visitors, who asked questions about renovation or were learning through specialist presentations. On Saturday, Seelbach had taken precautions at the Bonova stand to avoid the crush seen at the previous fair. It was still very crowded at around 1pm: “Of the 15 apartments, nine are reserved,” Seelbach explained. “We are clearly experiencing the pressure on the housing market first hand.”

Visitors to the fair were crowded round the stands of other estate agents by around noon. Hans-Werner and Hildegard Pissarczyk from Bonn were also looking for a three-room apartment for their son. “The high market prices are simply a catastrophe,” criticised Hildegard Pissarczyk. She primarily called the politicians to account. Better conditions must finally be created. Specifically, the rent brake is not working at all and there is hardly any publicly subsidised housing available any more. “Everything was sold off in the past,” said the woman, annoyed.

It is clear to Ulrich Ziegenhagen, deputy head of the Bonn Office for Development and his colleague Hermann Tengler, head of the Rhine-Sieg district Office for Development, that the city of Bonn and the 19 municipalities in the district must cooperate more closely to create more living space.

By the end of the fair, the prospective apartment purchaser from Troisdorf was happy: despite the crowds, he had reserved his dream apartment.

(Original text: Axel Vogel. Translation: kc)

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